Some of the Irish folk-melodies are of ancient origin, others 
have emerged in the last 300-400 years, a good number as late as 
the last century, many of these composed by Carolan, one of the 
last Irish bards. These bards, or harpists— poets, composers and 
singers in one person—used to be very numerous: every Irish 
chieftain kept his own at his castle. Many also travelled around the 
country as wandering minstrels, persecuted by the English, who 
quite rightly saw in them the main bearers of the national, 
anti-English tradition. The old songs about the victories of Finn 
Mac Cumhal (whom Macpherson stole from the Irish and turned 
into a Scot under the name of Fingal in his Ossian,?'*° which is 
entirely based on these Irish songs), about the splendour of the 
old royal palace of Tara, about the heroic feats of King Brian 
Borumha, and the later songs about the struggles of the Irish 
chieftains against the Sassenach (English) were preserved by these 
bards in the living memory of the nation; and they also celebrated 
in song the deeds of contemporary Irish chieftains in their 
struggle for independence. But when the Irish people were utterly 
crushed in the seventeenth century by Elizabeth, James I, Oliver 
Cromwell and William of Orange,” robbed of their land holdings 
in favour of English intruders, outlawed and turned into a nation 
of pariahs, the wandering minstrels were hounded as fiercely as 
the Catholic priests, and towards the beginning of this century 


a |J. Macpherson,] Fingal, an Ancient Epic Poem in Six Books, together with Several 
Other Poems composed by Ossian, the Son of Fingal, translated from the Gaelic Language (in 
The Works of Ossian, 1765).— Ed. 

6 William I11.— Ed. 


Notes for the Preface to a Collection of Irish Songs 141 


they gradually died out. Their names are forgotten, of their verses 
only fragments remain; the most beautiful legacy which they 
bequeathed to their enslaved but undefeated people are their 
melodies. 

Poems in the Irish language are all composed in stanzas of four 
lines. For this reason, most of the melodies, especially the older 
ones, are based on this four-line rhythm, although the link is often 
somewhat obscured. This rhythm is often followed by a refrain or 
a coda on the harp. Many of these old melodies are known only by 
their Irish names or opening words, even though in most of 
Ireland Irish is now only understood by old people, or not at all. 
But the greater part of the melodies, being more recent, already 
have English names or texts. 

The melancholy that prevails in most of these melodies is even 
today the expression of the national mood. How could it be 
otherwise among a people whose rulers are always inventing new, 
more up-to-date methods of oppression? The latest method, 
introduced forty years ago and carried to extremes for the past 
twenty years, is the mass eviction of the Irish from house and 
home, and that—in Ireland—is tantamount to deportation. Since 
1841 the population of the country has decreased by two and a 
half million, and more than three million Irishmen have emig- 
rated. All in the interests and at the behest of the large 
landowners of English origin. If this goes on for another thirty 
years, the only Irishmen left will be those in America.